The Supremes’ Orthogonal Moment

Arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday in the case of Briscoe v. Virginia, the University of Michigan law professor Richard Friedman gave the justices an unintentional vocabulary lesson:

MR. FRIEDMAN: I think that issue is entirely orthogonal to the issue here because the Commonwealth is acknowledging—

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: I’m sorry. Entirely what?

MR. FRIEDMAN: Orthogonal. Right angle. Unrelated. Irrelevant.

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Oh.

JUSTICE SCALIA: What was that adjective? I liked that.

MR. FRIEDMAN: Orthogonal.

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Orthogonal.

MR. FRIEDMAN: Right, right.

JUSTICE SCALIA: Orthogonal, ooh.

(Laughter.)

JUSTICE KENNEDY: I knew this case presented us a problem.

(Laughter.)

MR. FRIEDMAN: I should have — I probably should have said -

JUSTICE SCALIA: I think we should use that in the opinion.

(Laughter.)

MR. FRIEDMAN: I thought — I thought I had seen it before.

JUSTICE SCALIA: Or the dissent.

(Laughter.)

MR. FRIEDMAN: That is a bit of professorship creeping in, I suppose.

Via the Volokh Conspiracy